


Oddly Wonderful and Slightly Terrifying

by TheAFactor



Category: WALL-E (2008)
Genre: Other, i hope you enjoy pseudoscience because Boy Is It In Here, please don’t kill me it’s only slightly wall-e related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 17:25:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17626487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAFactor/pseuds/TheAFactor
Summary: One of the few lonely scientists left on Earth after the Axiom leaves writes emails to his daughter. It gets sad and a little bit gay.





	Oddly Wonderful and Slightly Terrifying

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this for a school assignment and I feel pretty confident about it, so I figured I might as well post it on here. Feel free to yell at me for any reason in the comments. I hope you’ll enjoy this.

August 25, 2078

Hello again from another day at EarthLab-001. I don’t have too much to catch you up on today. Just another boring day at the office, I guess. It’ll be more interesting before long, so I should probably savor the moment. It seems like everything nowadays is up in the stars. It never used to be like that, if you could believe it. When I was little, we’d get news from something called the International Space Station from a group of astronauts from around the world doing experiments in our atmosphere. There was a whole lot we didn’t know back then. Hell, we didn’t even get reasonably-priced space travel until I was working on my master’s. It really was a different world back then. I’m sure if she was here today, your mom’s head would fall clean off her body if she knew what the world is like. Now, it looks like we’ll have to scavenge what’s left to survive. You shouldn’t worry yet, Charlotte. We still have a bit of time. I’d say in 2-5 years, we’ll be completely out of resources here if we can’t find a reliable way to grow food. For the moment, we’re surviving off what NASA and Buy and Large were able to leave us, but even that isn’t enough sometimes. I dread the day we have to head outside to look. We really don't know what’s out there anymore. A lot of buildings out here got leveled when the Axiom took off. We think there might be some non-perishables left farther from where it took off, but it could take us days to get there. The team is planning on making the trip out to see in a few weeks time. I’m not assigned to this one, but I will be taking a trip outside sooner or later. I can only hope our searches will turn out fruitful. Please write or call, Dad

October 8, 2078  
Coming to you via email from EarthLab-001, it’s your old man! Haha. I don’t know if you’ll get that one, but all jokes aside, we made some very interesting discoveries this week. I went outside to find… pretty much nothing. The Axiom really destroyed everything it could on the way out. It’s almost as if Buy and Large wanted to completely end life on Earth. We couldn’t find anything at all, Charlotte. No doomsday prepper bunker underground. No warehouses full of goods. Nothing at all. Just the remnants of a society that used to be. It’s honestly scary how nothing’s left. It seems that the only thing we were able to find is trash, and a lot of it. The crazy weather blew a lot of the trash from the landfills everywhere. It’s remarkable how much waste we made here without knowing how to get rid of it. I see so much history in the trash. There’s newspapers with things we’ve known to be true for years, brands I haven’t seen since I was little, and so, so much plastic. We took some of it back to the lab to analyze. We’re gonna see how much longer this stuff has to decompose, or if it can decompose at all in this environment. All the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere complicates things. It also makes it hotter than anything, which is bad for our already weak cooling system. Charlotte, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen 20 or so old scientists in their undergarments moving with the fan and their asses in the deep freezer. Your mother would love it. You would love it. Autumn would hate it. Jeremy would run around laughing and screaming like a chicken with its head chopped off, which is a glowing recommendation all its own. Speaking of Jeremy, how is he doing? You haven’t called since September. I miss the little guy. I miss you too, don’t get me wrong, but Jeremy is something all his own. Thanks for his picture from the other day, too. I printed it out and put it on my wall. It reminds me I have something up there to do the work down here for. Call me soon,  
Dad

November 14, 2078  
Finally, a win for the EarthLab-001 team! We found a fallout shelter filled with supplies. It has enough to keep us in the clear until next summer, at least. And the best part? It has ramen noodles. I haven’t had those things in years! They’re nothing like the real stuff, but they’ll be more than fine for me. Of course, Rei thinks we’re crazy for touching the stuff, but he’s always been one for tradition. He’s pretty backwards on just about everything. He wouldn’t approve of you and Autumn, that’s for sure. I’m not sure why he would care so much. We have much bigger things to worry about as the last people on Earth. We have to worry about cleaning this place up, analyzing the atmosphere’s chemical makeup, and most importantly, surviving. There’s a lot of different problems that come with surviving, however. Our newest pressing issue is waste disposal. The powers that be didn’t provide us with an awesome septic tank, as we found out yesterday, so now I have to fix it. Apparently, we decided to keep 19 people on the planet that don’t know how to do any repair work. It’s a crappy job, but I think I’ll manage. I miss you. Be sure to call,  
Dad

December 25, 2078  
Merry Christmas, Charlotte! I hope you guys got the package I sent. It’s not much, but I hope you’ll like it. Please tell me what Jeremy thinks of the drawing. I had one of the more gifted artists here do his best to recreate it. I think you’ll see he did well. As for Autumn, I found her something while we were outside. We ended up going 100 miles out and we found a doomsday bunker filled with old memorabilia. I thought she would enjoy the iconic copy of The New York Times announcing North Korea’s rejoining with South Korea. She’ll have to be careful with it, but I think it’ll be a interesting read. And for you? Well, I’m not gonna spoil it on here, but it’s something you’ve been looking for for a long time. I hope you’ll enjoy it. It took me ages to find something close to it. I’ll talk to you soon,  
Dad

January 15, 2079  
Hello, Charlotte. I appreciate you telling me in your last email that you never received the packages I sent you, as much as it annoys me. I was fairly certain you would enjoy your gifts at Christmas time, but obviously the Milky Way Postal System begged to differ. I hope you weren't too disappointed by their lack of competence after all and that you still had a wonderful holiday. I guess since you will never get to have my gift, I might as well tell you what it would’ve been. I found an engagement ring among the rubble that looked very similar to the one you lost down here long ago. I thought that you and Autumn might enjoy having something like what you had instead of that one you have now, but I guess the universe didn’t want that to happen after all. I remember the day you lost it, you were so devastated. We searched everywhere in the house, but it disappeared into thin air. We called the jeweler Autumn bought it from but they “discontinued that style”. Why would you discontinue a style of ring? I’ve upheld my boycott of that company to this day, thank you very much. Anyways, it’s business as usual on Earth. Weather’s horrible, the food’s awful, and morale is hard to come by. We have a mission planned about a month from now, going further than we’ve ever gone before. We’re headed towards the ancient ruins of St. Louis. We’re hoping to find something that cracks the case, something to get our asses in gear to make this planet green again. We have a lead, we just need something…New. I’m sure we’ll be able to find it. We need to be able to find it, and soon. Call me, beep me,  
Dad

February 24, 2079  
Hello, Charlotte. I was hoping we could talk under much different pretenses, but unfortunately that’s not the case. We were out on the mission last night and Phil punctured his suit. We had to practically hyperjump back to the lab. He’s in the medical wing now, but it’s looking like he’s not going to make it. We don’t really know what’s wrong with him. His body isn’t responding to any of the medicine we’ve given him. We think it might be one of the pathogens in the air that we haven’t adapted to. However, that isn’t why I’m writing this email. I’m writing because our systems are losing power, and quickly. All our renewable methods of power are failing because of the weather being so unstable. It’s hailing ice the size of vans one day and melting vans the next. We might have to start relying on our non renewable power sources, and we only have so much gas. I’m afraid I only have so much time left on this Earth. Right now, we’re on course to deplete our renewable power in the next few weeks, and we only have gas for a few days after that. I’m scared that this will be my last email to you. I’m also scared that we haven’t done enough to save this planet. We have a design for something that can help pick up the trash, to start cleaning up this place so you can come back, but we don’t have much time. I’m not sure if there’s much more we can do. We’re sending our transcripts to the head of Buy and Large next week. I can only hope that they will listen, and that my death will not be in vain. I want you to know that I love you, Charlotte. I look up to the sky every day and think of you, starting a new life with the rest of the human race up there. It’s oddly wonderful and slightly terrifying. I hope you’ll forgive me for choosing to stay down here on this dirty, wonderful, ruined, salvageable hunk of a rock. I did it for all of us, but more importantly, I did it for you. I stayed so that Jeremy could have an Earth to come back to someday. He’s never gonna remember this planet, and he’s never gonna remember a life on Earth. That’s why I have one last thing to ask of you. Please, tell him about Earth. Tell him all of the wonderful things I’ll never get to. Morning glories blooming in the dawn. The smell of rain. A bubbling river with a deer drinking upstream. A fresh, sun-ripened tomato straight from the garden. The smell of freshly-cut grass. But most of all, tell him how life on Earth was hard, but totally, completely, worth the struggle. I love you. I miss you. I’ll see you soon. 

Dad  
MARCH 4, 2079  
A call received upon the Axiom by Charlotte Leopold-May  
“Hello. We regret to inform you that your relative, THOMAS LEOPOLD has passed during the EARTHLAB-001 mission. We send our condolences to you during this troubling time. Press 1 to begin your funeral planning process. Press 2 to open your Memories Portal, where your friends and family can share their favorite moments with your loved one. Press 3 if you would like to be left alone for this time. *3* We’re sorry for your loss. Please call us back at 1-800-333-8866 to begin the funeral process. We hope you-“ *end call*


End file.
